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Geldof and Colman urge Home Office to reconsider climate activist’s deportation
(www.theguardian.com)
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Leading actors and musicians including Bob Geldof, Olivia Colman and Emma Thompson are calling on the Home Office to reconsider the “harsh deportation” of a climate activist who is serving one of the longest prison sentences in modern British history for peaceful protest.
Along with the musicians Brian Eno and Jacob Collier, they are among about 600 artists who are urging James Cleverly to withdraw the deportation order issued to Marcus Decker.
Decker is serving a 14-month jail sentence for a protest in which he climbed the Queen Elizabeth Bridge over the Dartford Crossing and unveiled a Just Stop Oil banner in October 2022.
In their letter, the actors say: “We believe that punishing him (Decker) with deportation in addition to the 14 months he has already spent in prison is out or proportion to the crime committed and unconducive to the public good.”
The letter says: “We urge you to consider what it would look like to the rest of the world if the UK which prides itself in leading on climate action were to start deporting human rights defenders like Marcus.”
The letterfollows a similar appeal to the home secretary from hundreds of scientists including Dr James Dyke, associate professor in Earth system science and the assistant director of the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter, and Julia K Steinberger, professor of ecological economics at the University of Lausanne.
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